AARNet to roll out telepresence exchange

Agrees to connect local, international universities with Cisco.

Research network operator AARNet will extend its National Video Conferencing Service (NVCS) to include telepresence from October.

Under a newly announced agreement with Cisco, AARNet will facilitate high-definition video connections between its research and education customers free of charge.

AARNet planned to deploy Cisco's TelePresence Exchange System in its points of presence so it could act as a “service broker”, connecting customers without them having to grapple with the firewalls and IP addresses of external parties.

Cisco’s ANZ public sector director Ken Boal said the service would lower the barriers to entry for institutions, which would still need to purchase the vendor’s TelePresence equipment costing upwards of $15,000.

According to AARNet’s applications and services director, James Sankar, telepresence was more “immersive and lifelike” than traditional video conferencing, which could be “quite draining” after hours of use.

Since 2006, AARNet has offered multi-party conferencing, recording, 1080p desktop video conferencing, and desktop sharing as part of its NVCS, use of which has doubled year-on-year to 10,500 hours in 2010, Sankar said.

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